Can't Let Go
by tailirine
Summary: Secret past sometimes are best unspoken about.
1. Where Do We Go

Disclaimer: I do not own Psych in any manner nor am I associated with it in any manner.

This is for fun.

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><p>There was a knock on the door, Carlton answered it to find a face he had come to adore over the past year. A female he met under less than your ordinary circumstances. She looked sad however. Carlton let her in and was going to give a welcoming kiss, but she turned away.<p>

"No, Carlton, I didn't come over to spend time." She covered her lips and tried her hardest to keep the lump in her throat from crying out. Tried to keep herself from letting his lips graze her own. She couldn't understand how she ended up here, not that part of her minded, but the other part knew how very wrong it was.

"You called and said you needed to come over. I said come over. Why else would you come over if not to spend time?"

"To tell you that I'm leaving Santa Barbara. To tell you these things just don't match up. I'm just inconvenient for you. I'm… All I could ever do for you is cause problems, problems socially, problems with your jobs, problems everywhere. I tempted you into this. I know I did. So… I'm leaving. I've been seeing this one guy for a while now. He's my age. We're going to run off together, move upstate. Make things easier for both of us. I'll just leave and you won't ever have to deal with me, okay? This makes it easier. Easier for you. Easier for me." Amelia wanted to kiss him so bad. One more kiss, a good-bye kiss it would be.

"Look, we've been fine so far. There's no reason we couldn't continue and what do you mean you've been seeing this guy for a while? You mean while we've been together?" Carlton expressed with a mix of concern and confusion, but still layered with his unique attitude.

"No, we haven't been fine. I'm too good to be anyone's little secret. I may be young, but I am not naive. I understand a scandal like this could not be let out. We started seeing each other before I even turned 18, not good for someone in your position. Not to mention, the fact that you're legally married, and as some people see, actively trying to repair your marriage. Could you even really say that we've been together, Carlton? He's someone who can take me out and treat me like we can be seen together. I'm not saying I have any issue with the way our relationship has been, but we both deserve the right to be happy, even outside from behind closed doors." Amelia began to turn back to the door she had hardly walked away from.

"Amelia, it will be fine. I promise. I don't understand when this happened. I, you're really leaving?" She nodded without turning fully around again and her hand clutched the doorknob. She urged herself to turn it, knowing it was the best choice for Carlton and her. She didn't want anyone to find out about the possible stain she could place on his record. He didn't need her. He shouldn't even think about her. The best thing she could do for him was leaving, explain nothing, just leave him.

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><p>'Wonderful, a get together with all of Victoria's friends, I absolutely love these. This is what I requested the day off for. Unbelievable.' Carlton thought to himself while looking around for a drink to put in his hand and waste the time until it was time to go home.<p>

While Victoria was being chummy with all of her friends, which Carlton did not find the least one pleasant, his eyes perused the crowd. He hated to actually express he was miserable at these events. Every time they had gone out recently, he felt as though she was testing him. He loved her, he really did. He just felt something breaking. He knew it would be irreparable, but that didn't stop him from trying to prevent any fracture that could appear. All he had to do was pretend to not be absolutely miserable, it was a manageable feat. Five o'clock going to 'until'. He could go all the way to 'until' o' clock. 'Just grin and bear every time she looks at you, Lassiter' he thought.

"Hello," he heard a voice break his terrible crowded thoughts of avoidance. It's not that he didn't like to be in a group of people, it was just this particular crowd of people he did not like to be amongst. He shook his surprise and kept a cool and slowly turned to the direction from which the voice came.

"Yes?" he responded in a tone that clearly was asking 'why are you speaking to me?' and gave annoyed smile.

"Well nothing. I just saw you sitting by yourself and I went with the assumption that perhaps you are like me, and don't really find yourself coming up with much to say to most people who are here. You're Victoria's husband, right, the detective?" she held her hand out for an introduction. "My name is Amelia. I've met her a few times."

He shook her hand politely.

"Are you not having a good time? I wish I didn't have to be here but I'm kind of being forced to stay here." Amelia nodded towards the hosts of the backyard get-together. "Margaret and Wesley practically pushed me out here."

"Yeah. Kind of the same situation here, however, probably completely different reasons for being in a mandatory attendance to a bar-be-que" He took a drink of his beer. He didn't want to let out too much information. He didn't know this Amelia, who she knew, or how she was related to anyone at this party. He figured she seemed nice and innocent enough to have a little bit of chit chat. They continued to converse practically the whole time. Now when Victoria were to glance over in search of a miserable Carlton, she actually some him somewhat enjoying himself. He had found someone who wasn't just passed unbearable. This girl was smart and entertaining. His first instinct to treat as just another annoying friend of his wife's was incorrect he came to realize.

Eventually, they had escaped the sounds of the hustle and bustle of the party. Carlton surprisingly found himself very relaxed around Amelia. He was kind of disappointed he hadn't met her before tonight, not that he would let on to that. He was still trying to come off as his hard self but she wasn't phased by it. Most of all other acquaintances of Victoria's thought he was an absolute jerk. They were all wrong, they were just shunned by their first impression. He didn't care enough to trying and push past that. If that's what they thought, then that's what they would think. Did Victoria try to defend him in that sense? He didn't know. He never really thought about it. Regardless, Amelia was an interesting person. They shared interests. They were both deeply interested into history amongst other things. Too many other things to point them out.

Lassiter had continued his adult drinking as they spent the time talking. By this time, he was in a very comfortable state. Amelia hadn't been drinking, he had inquired for her reasonings. She just giggled and said she couldn't and brushed it off nonchalantly. He assumed she had a bad past with alcohol or with someone who was an alcoholic. He didn't care why should wasn't drinking. He's glad she was talking. Perhaps if she had been drinking he wouldn't have learned what an extraordinary person she was. If he didn't know better, he would recall his feeling he felt bubbling up inside of him as what it felt like to have a crush on someone. As if, as soon as they were separated, all he would be able to think about is the next time he would see her. With that being said, he didn't know if he'd ever see her again.

'Definitely need to see when the next get together is' he thought to himself, just hoping to see her again. He watched her and she lifted her wrist and adjusted her watch to check the time. He hadn't realized he had not heard a word she said until she repeated his name at least three times.

"What? Sorry, what did you say? Must be the alcohol getting to me." He gave a buzzed smiled. She laughed lightly at him.

"I said it's about 10 o'clock. Do you need to get going?"

"Probably do. However," he leaned in towards her "I need to tell you something before I get up to go. I've enjoyed this night, a lot. You give me hope for Victoria's friends. I think they were all assholes. But you, you are, you are not an asshole. You are whatever the opposite of the asshole is, not like anatomically speaking, because that would make you a mouth. I don't think telling someone they are a mouth is complimentary, however, you are an awesome mouth." He smiled and blinked slowly. "You're very pretty as well. Beautiful even. You made my night. I enjoyed it. I thought I'd be terribly miserable and pulled my hand piece out and shoot someone for entertainment." Amelia giggled. Carlton kissed her.

"Carlton?"They separated.

It was just a bunch of silence with a little bit of ums scattered. They said nothing. Carlton got up and headed to go find his wife.


	2. Shawn and Amelia

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Psych in any manner. I am not associate with Psych in any mean.

This is for fun.

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><p>Shawn and Gus were hanging out at the Psych office. It had been a slow week for the police department actually needing him.<p>

"Why are we even here, Shawn? We have no cases or anything." Gus was getting antsy to leave. If they were going to hang out, they had much better places to hang out than the office. Supposedly Lassiter had been on another streak recently. He had been so focused on his work lately, nothing would distract, not even the nuisance of Spencer. Lassiter had been acting different. Shawn tried to pick up on what was going on, but there were no clues to give away what was eating at the detective, not even Juliet was aware. She didn't care; they were on a hot roll with the solving of crimes.

"Well, Gus, I'm kind of just hoping Jules will break through the door and tell me she needs me, in more than one way." Gus gave him a look that said 'yeah right.' "Maybe? No? Perhaps. Okay fine let's go. Let's go see what Meli and Arty are up to." Shawn got up and grabbed his jacket to head out.

"No, you can go by yourself. If you forget, I have a full time job that I need to go to. I hardly ever go there anymore. I don't know how I'm still employed. Plus, she's your lady friend, why would I want to be there?" Gus shrugged and headed out before him.

"Three's company? Maybe Mr. Furley will barge in during one of our hi-jinks!" Gus gave him another familiar stare. "Fine, then will you drop me off there? You know we car-pooled in your car today." Shawn made sure to lock the door behind him and stuffed his keys into his pocket as he made his way to Gus' little blue vehicle.

"What do you mean carpool? We always drive my car. I'd like to see us _carpool _on your motorcycle." He over-exaggerated the quotation mark bunny ears with his fingers and then motion led into his arms and legs. "Maybe you should get a vehicle of your own. Does Amelia even like your motorcycle? I don't think she's ever even been on it."

"She - I'm sure - finds it very erotic. She has passed every opportunity to be on it however. Probably because Arty can't be on it with us, but I just drive her car. So, why would I even need my OWN car, Gus? I drive everyone else's, if I got my own, who would drive everyone else's cars?" Shawn unlocked his own door with a new key.

"Oh, I don't know, the designated owner maybe? Is that so wrong?" Gus having just realized Shawn let himself into the car. "Shawn, did you get a copy of my car key made?" Shawn nodded.

"It's fine. Only for emergencies."

"This is a company car, Shawn! Give me that key" Gus tried to reach over the roof of the car but realized its uselessness – Shawn was already comfortably in the passenger seat. So he sat down and snatched the key out of Shawn's hand.

"Relax, Gus. It's actually you're spare key. I just grabbed it earlier. I don't know why. I just did." Shawn buckled himself. "Well, let's get going!" he patted on the dashboard as Gus turn the key and engine began to roar.

When Shawn arrived at Amelia's place, he let himself in. Amelia had given him a key for whatever reason he would need to get into her house, despite the fact they weren't even really in a relationship. They had been seeing each other for the past couple of months. Amelia never wanted to solidify what was their status.

Amelia had moved here again about a year and half previous to meeting Shawn. Gus and he had just solved a case so he was still on a high of pretending to be a psychic. Naturally, he just flowed into when he approached a girl who looked a little frazzled but friendly at the bar. He figured she might have had some clue as to who he might be, considering the big case they had taken care of in the week before. He gave her the whole read over and impressed her. As they got to know each other that night they met, Shawn just felt as though something clicked. He usually didn't see much into letting people think he was a genuine psychic, but when Amelia mentioned a strong distaste for people who lied. He felt this was a pretty good opportunity, so he shortly came clean. He felt he could trust her with his secret. So far she hadn't let anyone in on the secret, but also she didn't like to hear him talking about his lying to people. So, often she would listen to him talk about the cases he would solve, but in the sense he was investigating and not lying and being psychic – therefore he didn't really talk about the police station too much.

They started out just hanging out at first and Shawn didn't really try to make a move after understanding why she had moved back to Santa Barbara. She moved back because her mom was going to need her to live closer since her father had passed on. Her mom just wanted to have her close by, not to do things for her, so in case she needed her daughter. At first, Amelia was a bit hesitant, she was afraid she would run into the other side of her former affair. She didn't believe she was ready to see him yet. Fortunately, Santa Barbara isn't a backwoods hick town where everyone knows each other. She had done well in the year and half she had been back in her home town. She lived on the opposite side of town from which she remembered he had lived on. She had even yet to run into anyone she or he both knew, even though that was an older crowd. Outside of knowing her parents, she never spoke with them to begin. She didn't even know if he was still living in Santa Barbara or if he still worked at the police station. Sometimes she wanted to ask Shawn if he knew him, but she knew better than to do that. She didn't want to have to delve into explanations of how she knew him or the awkwardness of Shawn asking if she wanted to see him. That's the only thing that made her nervous of even knowing Shawn – knowing there was a possible risk of a chance of seeing him again, perhaps. With the entire ifs and buts, she tried not to think about it. The only time she would even allow it to creep into her mind while she drifted to sleep.

Even though she did like Shawn, he was very fun and interesting guy, ever night when she laid down to sleep whether she lay alone or beside Shawn, Carlton would drift into her mind. All the thoughts and worries of if Shawn knew him. At times, she would let herself _wish _he knew him. Maybe she would accidentally run into him and things could continue where they had left off. Fortunately, her mom and dad had never learned about them. What would her poor dead father think about her being so intimate with a man his own age and meeting him at their own house, nonetheless, and with one of their best friends husband? So many thoughts scrambled and rambles from wall to wall of her skull. They bounced around her head until she could consciously pay attention any longer due the sleep that took over.

When the new day begin, she would act as If the thoughts were never even thought up. A new day she could look forward to being with her few friends and maybe with Shawn if he weren't too busy. Since it had been a little slow around the office lately, Shawn had been coming over more, often staying the night. Amelia wanted to spend the night alone with Shawn, so she sent Arthur over to her mom's house for the night.

Shawn entered into the living room and made himself apparent, as if she hadn't already known he was there. Tonight he thought might be the night when they could finally give each other some sort of title. He never knew how to talk about her. He did not know if he should refer to her as his girlfriend or a friend. Shawn had his own feelings to fight. He really liked Amelia and she was available. He loved spending time with her and Arthur. Probably due to his often own childlike behavior, he felt close and easy with socializing with him. He liked her kid. It was weird for him, too. He never really saw himself dating a girl with a kid. He thought it was sort of like a death sentence, as thou he would have to tie himself down to the girl because the kid would become attached to him. It wasn't like that at all. Arthur called him Shawn. Shawn would baby sit at times. There was no feeling of obligations. Basically, Shawn was his Arthurs babysitter who hung out with his mom. Shawn was happy in the situation he had placed himself in.

However, whenever he was working a case with the SBPD, he was in a completely different place. When he was there, he was near Juliet. He couldn't help but be the flirt he was when he was around her. No matter how many girls he has dated in the past 5 years since he met her, he could not shake his feelings for Juliet. Even though he was still in love with her, he would be nothing but faithful to Amelia, because he has a girlfriend and another best friend who he was a fair amount of interest in common.

"I am here! What are you doing and where is Arty?" He hopped over the back of the couch where Amelia had headed to sit. She was on the computer at a social networking site and kept typing something out and then erasing it. She knew there was no chance he'd be on a site such as that. She just really hoped she could find him. She decided to click the x and join the faux psychic on the couch.

"I see that. He's over at mom's place. We've got the whole place to ourselves." She snuggled against him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "This will be the first time we are alone all night since we moved from being just friends."

"Funny you should mention that, I was wondering if we could talk about what we are. I know we are _more than friends, _however, if there anything else you would like to call me other than more than your friend? I mean I haven't gone out with anyone else in months. I think you're pretty much my girlfriend, Meli." She smiled at him. She liked it when he called her Meli. He expressed that Amelia was a very gorgeous and regal sounding name, however it had too many syllables. So he just took the A's out.

"What's it matter, Shawn? I've told you before. I've been deceived and corrupted. Last time I let myself really feel something for someone, it didn't end very well." She shrugged and acting as though it wasn't anything to talk about, not letting on that it was her own fault they separated.

"What? With the last guy you were with like seven years ago? You're telling me you have not had a boyfriend ion 7 years. How did you get away with that? Did you make yourself look like Charlize Theron in Monster? I'm sorry I could not think of a movie from my childhood to which I could make a comparison."

"It's fine, I don't mind from which decade you're references are. And No, I guess I haven't really. I mean I've been busy. The first 6 years of a kid's life are very important. I didn't have time for a boyfriend. So you're lucky you came in after the first half of decade." She smiled.

"Are you waiting for Arty's dad or something, Amelia? From what you've told me, he's a complete jerk and you don't need him. The fact you left him is probably the best thing you could have ever done. You deserve much more than being the other woman. You need wine-ing and dining." He gave her a side hug and pulled her into the armpit.

"No I'm not waiting for him to come back. Technically, I wasn't the other woman. He was separated at the time we start actually dating, I guess if that's what you want to call it."

"No, I wouldn't call only express how you felt about each other in a room where two are the only ones present dating. And that doesn't make a difference - if he was married he was married. Marriage is marriage, especially if he was trying to repair his relationship with her while you two were together."

"Well, I never told you, but he was little older. It was a very odd situation we were in. He was in a position where people looked up to him and if it were known he was dating something of my age at that time, it would _not _have been the best thing for him. Anyway, I don't want to talk about this. This is our night." She leaned over and kissed him. He decided to brush it off. He would find a way around all of it. He didn't really mind what they were, he knew what they were and she knew what they were.

They had decided to watch a movie, halfway through it Shawn's phone rang. It was the Chief, finally. They hadn't been around the police department in at least a week.

"I'm sorry, Meli, I've got to go. Chief needs me and Gus there ASAP. They finally have a case for us to work on. Finally, something the Las can't handle."

"That's fine. If you're not out all night, just come back here. You know I'll be alone." She got up to turn off the DVD and clean up. She thought it was really weird that he went Irish all of a sudden. She had never heard him refer to anyone as 'las'. She didn't linger on it too long because she knew Shawn was just weird.


	3. Juliet gets involved

Again. No ownership of none of this but the story line.

Like it? tell me bout it. Or not. Just enjoy it.

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><p>Shawn and Gus ducked under some 'police line – do not cross tape' that crossed over and apartment door. He looked around looking for subtle things trying to get information to spurt out to the dectetives in the room.<p>

"So you finally need me, huh, Lassie?" Shawn opened his arms to hug Detective Lassiter. Carlton held his hand up and furrowed his brow.

"I don't need you, Spencer. I never need you. You know, I've been doing just well lately. Chief Vick's the one who called you down. Know why? Victim had a pet. She thought you could shed some light on the situation by communicating to it." Lassiter rolled his eyes and let out a soft scoff. He walked away not wanting to deal with Shawn at the moment. He had his own things to deal with. Shawn watched him walk away and then turned to Gus.

"Is it just me or does he seem angrier than usual?" Gus asked Shawn. Shawn nodded in agreement. Juliet approached them over hearing what Gus had just said.

"Hello Juliet, "Shawn smiled at her.

"Shawn, Gus, and Yes, he's been a little grumpier than his usual grump. It's just the time of year. It's getting close to when he got separated and all that. Even though he's grumpier, he's a lot more determined and clears cases a lot quicker. Lot more focused. Any, glad you're finally here, what took so long?"

"Oh, I was hanging out with my girlf – my more than a wom – Amelia. We're a little shaky on our terms of endearment. Any, you don't want to hear about that, where's this animal?" Shawn slapped his hands together and rubbed them, he's been waiting for this all week and after awkwardly bringing up the fact he had a girlfriend to Juliet, he wanted to get to it quicker. Juliet led them over to a fish tank. She moved her arm out and over as presenting the tank.

"It's a fish. Hopefully, you'll be able to get something from him. There's absolutely no signs of anyone else being here. It's obvious the man was murdered, but it's like he was murdered by no one. The fish was the only of living thing here. We do have a small lead, so Carlton and I are going to go follow up on that." Juliet began to walk off. "So, good luck on your part Shawn." She smiled at him and then turned off to exit the apartment.

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><p>Juliet and Carlton were riding in silence. Carlton hadn't been in the best of mood recently. Juliet could tell he had a lot on his mind. It was coming up around the time of year when he and Victoria had separated. He always got weird within that time frame. She just lumped it up to that and never actually tried to pry. She had just noticed he was acting more unusual than the past years. Carlton broke the silence.<p>

"O'hara." It' surprised her a bit and she jumped barely. She turned to respond to him with a yes. "I know this is going to sound very weird. I don't like to talk about my feelings or personal stuff. But I feel I can trust you." Juliet made a face. She was a little mixed. She was glad it sounded like Carlton wanted to confide in her but she was wondering what he could want to talk about with her. Carlton did show emotions. He was looking a little distraught, or at least more than his usual temperament.

"Thank you Carlton. I'm glad you trust me after almost 5 years of working together. What's on your mind?" She adjusted herself in the seat, safely, to face him better.

"Well, I know you know I always get a little weird around this time of year. It's not mystery. It's a whole of lot of different stuff, not just about Victoria, like I know everyone thinks. It's about any woman I've had in my life. They just tend to leave around the same time. Like remember, my former partnet, Lucinda, she and I parted ways around this time. Other's but specifically, one named Amelia. I usually fight it off, but hearing Spencer say her name. I just need to get something off my chest. Carlton proceeded to explain the story of the two, leaving out the significant age difference but allowing Juliet to know she was younger. "Now, don't get to thinking that I think there is any correlation between the two Amelia's, he just made me think harder of her. I mean, second to Victoria, that's the woman I've ever loved most. That's part of the reason she left. My love for Victoria and the fact she started dating some guy her own age. I just I work so hard trying to not forget about it. I mean it lingers a lot throughout the rest of the year, but it's really hard around the time it happened. " Carlton sighed as they pulled into their final destination. "I also thought I saw her recently. I doubt she's living here again though."

"Why don't you look her up if you miss her that much? I mean, do you think she's still with the other guy? And even she is, it wouldn't hurt to just speak to her." She put her hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner." He glanced at her hand out the side of his eyes. She removed her hand and said sorry with her facial expression.

"No. I've never thought to do that, O'Hara. If she wants to speak to me, she will speak to me. Obviously she does not want to speak to me, therefore I am not going to go out of my way to get in touch with her. I will wait for her to come back to me if she wants to come back to me." Carlton unbuckled and began to get out of the car as followed but Juliet. Before he was completely out, he turned around and finished the conversation. "And O'hara, if you share with anyone what I said, I will make sure that you have like a month of paper work to do and no fun on the field assignments." He smiled at her.

Juliet wasn't offended by that. She accepted how he was. She was happy enough that he actually told her what he was feeling. He was really beginning to trust and like her. She didn't get much else in on words wise but she thinks she picked up pretty well on what he wanted from her. She began to think how she could help Lassiter in this delimma. Perhaps if he wouldn't go after her and she wasn't coming after him, Juliet could help speed the process from what he told, it sounded like they were in love and she just didn't want anything to happen to him because of their age different. She felt it was worth a shot to try and get in touch with this Amelia. She knew that's silently what Carlton was asking for.

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><p>For the past few days Juliet was looking into trying to find this past love from Carlton Lassiter's life. It didn't take very long she found the girl. It was an early Tuesday morning when she finally founds her.. She had a website for a home business as a seamstress and crafter. Juliet knew the perfect plan to devise to speak to her. Juliet composed an e-mail inquiring to have a face to face meeting about getting an authentic-styled civil war outfit for reenactments. She figured Amelia would be up for it. She didn't want to give away any information to scare her away. She didn't lead on to that she was a detective or police or anything associated with Carlton. She would pull that out when she met her. After typing away very quickly she hit send and hoped to hear back as soon as possible, she included her number for a quicker response. She hoped it would be soon. She couldn't wait a moment longer to get this going. She sent the e-mail at 9:08 am. She continuously checked her inbox every minute.<p>

Her phone rang surprising her. She just startled way too easily. She was so focused on checking her inbox she had forgotten about her phone. It was an unknown number. She picked it up quickly hoping the voice on the other end would belong to this stranger. This stranger her partner still loved very much. Her 'hello?' was greeted with an alien voice.

"Hi, This is Amelia Brogdan calling from Custom Costumes. Is this Juliet O'Hara?" Juliet had never been so happy to talk to someone she never knew. She went over a few things she was looking for. Amelia had expressed a personal interest in history , so she was looking forward to getting started on this particular outfit. Amelia had an opening for a lunch meeting and Juliet took it as quick as possible, without sounding borderline crazy. She was going to meet he for lunch. On the same day she found her. This was going ever so quickly. She knew it was right. She couldn't wait to meet this girl face to face.

Juliet arrived at the restaurant the decided to meet at. She was waiting at the table trying to think of how to approach the Carlton thing easily. She didn't' want to scare her. There could be a reason why Amelia had not contacted Lassiter. Maybe she didn't feel the same way as she was younger, but from what he described, she didn't think that was the case. Amelia hadn't left him because she didn't care for him. She left him because she did care for him. She didn't want anything to happen to him. If she cared that much for him back then, Juliet knew there was no way she could absolutely not give a damn about him at all now. She kept looking at the entrance of the door waiting to see her walk in. There as a picture of Amelia on her website, so she knew who to look for. She was anticipating the meeting so much. She was so happy she could help out Carlton. She wanted him to be happy and not spend so much time on work. She knew it was in his nature, but couldn't she want him to have some happy of the side? Also, she really wanted to see Shawn around the office more. She would stop by the Psych office from time to time, but she thought it might be a little weird to ask if Shawn wanted to hang out. She didn't want the awkward situation of trying to figure out if it was a date or not. Or if he thought it was date. Or if she wanted it to be a date. Dates didn't matter now. Shawn had a girlfriend. She missed her opportunity again. She wanted to wish him poorly in his new romance, but she also wanted to wish him well.

"Hi, Are you Juliet?" Amelia approached the table.

"Yes!" Juliet jumped up and shook her hand happily. "Glad to meet you. I've been looking forever for someone to help me make a custom outfit. You know buying outfits online just doesn't get the right fit. I mean it's really hard. I mean too big here, too tight there. I wish I knew how to sew. I missed out on learning. But I mean thank God I found you, right?" She was a bit rambly. She had not decided how to bring up Carlton. Amelia gave a little forced friendly laugh and sat down.

"So did you have a sketch or picture of what you wanted? I could even draw on up if you need me to, that say we can be on the same page of what you want." Amelia began to rummage through he bag to pull out a sketch pad an pencil.

"No, silly me, I totally didn't even think to print off a picture. So, how'd you get into sewing?" She was trying to strike up some small talk to ease into what she was dying to burst out to talk about. She figured maybe she could get a bit into her history and she'd mention Carlton first, kind of use it as a segue.

"Well my grandmother taught me how and it had always been a hobby. Are there any specifics you want? I can draw what I'm thinking and you tell me what you think. I mean there's not much design for it. Basic fabrics and everything."

"yeah, you do that. I also may need to get a man's outfit made, too. Do you have experience sewing for both genders?"

Amelia nodded "Yes. I've been doing this a while."

"You looks young though, couldn't be long, right? How'd you get into the business?" Juliet was starting to sound more like she was interrogating.

"My ex-boyfriend encouraged me to do so. I've actually done a civil war outfit before. First one was for him. I actually do more females work. The only male clothing I do much these days is for my son. He'll see something on TV and want it." Amelia laughed at thinking about her son's enthusiasm.

"You're son? Oh, again, you look young, how old is he?" Juliet was literally on the edge of her seat.

"He's seven. Are you going to talk about the outfit or just talk to me like you're trying to figure out I'm guilty?" Amelia placed her pencil down.

Juliet relaxed back in her seat a bit. Guess now was a better time than ever to go ahead and let the cat out the bag. She had gotten overzealous and stray from her plan.

"I'm sorry. To be honest, I'm actually not getting an outfit. I work for the Santa Barbara Police Department."

"I didn't do anything illegal" Amelia looked kind of confused. Maybe it had something to do with Shawn. "Is this about…" Juliet cut her off.

"It's about my Partner. Carlton Lassiter. He told me about you. He really misses you. He didn't want to get in touch with you. He's kind of just waiting for you to come around."

Amelia went from a friend confused face, to an angry face.

"Look Miss. O'Hara. I don't know what you want. But I'm not here to talk about anything but sewing an outfit." Amelia placed her stuff back into her bag.

"I didn't mean to upset you. I was just seeing if you'd like to meet up with him. I'm not sure if you knew he still lived in the city considering how long it had been since you've seen him. He just. He still cares about you. I want to see him happy. And not because he just shot something. I want to see him happy about human interaction." Juliet plead. "If you can just meet up with him. Give him a little more resolution than what you left him with."

Amelia stood up to leave. "I don't believe any of it is any of your business. If I want to speak to Carlton, I will speak to Carlton. I had not spoken to him in 7 years. I don't think I plan to speak to him anytime soon, okay? So Miss. O'Hara, I'm going to be on my way because I left my song with my boyfriend who acts like he's the same age as my song to come to this _business _meeting. So thank you for the waste of time and I will thank you not to tell Carlton that you spoke to me." Amelia didn't even wait for a response before she left. Juliet just sat there dazed. She didn't think it would actually cause such an issue. She was more committed to Lassiter than this Amelia. So after meeting her, she could use deductive reason. She was going to tell him she spoke to Amelia. She was going to tell him about their meeting.


End file.
